- Joined
- Jun 4, 2020
- Messages
- 2,599
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- 689
- Points
- 113
- Age
- 38
- Location
- Seattle area
- Model
- Seafarer
Good afternoon everyone. I have some questions/concerns about possibly purchasing a 1999 GW 228 Seafarer and would love some suggestions or opinions. I'll attach the link for the ad to the boat below, but long story short... the boat is pending sale and being held for me at this point but there are a few issues with the boat. First, the hull is a 1999 and the motor is a 2007 Suzuki 225hp 4 stroke outboard of which on the ad they said it only had 280 hours on the motor. Well... they took it into their service department to double check the hours on the motor and now come to find out, it's jumped up to 723.7 hours on the motor. The hours don't really concern me that much as over half of those are at trolling speeds or less than 2k rpm but they also checked the compression and did a read out on the hours as well as any alarms the motor has had. The lowest compression was at 185 psi on the 3rd cylinder whereas the highest was at 200 psi on the 2nd cylinder. I don't know a ton about outboard motors but I'm wondering if that's an issue that might be discussed next, which would be that the computer readout says that the motor has had 19 overheating alarms, of which the most recent of which appears to have occurred at around 642 hours, or just about 100 hours ago. Now again, it's possible there could be a faulty temperature sensor and it's not actually having any issues, and the motor could be running just fine. I talked to the dealer earlier this morning though, of which I have pretty decent faith in them and they have a pretty fair reputation online and they are a GW dealer, but they're now saying the owner isn't exactly being very cooperative and seems like he might be hiding something about the motor. Or at least that's the impression I'm getting from my correspondence with the dealership.
On top of the possible issues with the motor... the boat doesn't come with the canvas, which isn't a huge issue to me because I don't think I'd ever us it much anyway, and didn't on my last boat. But there are several things on the boat that don't work such as the trim tabs, trim tab gauge, fuel, water pressure, stereo and VHF were all showing as "INOP" on the report they sent me. I'm guessing the "INOP" means inoperable and that the fuel means the fuel gauge and water pressure means the water pressure gauge. Again, these could be easy and cheap fixes like replacing the fuses on these items but they could also lead to more expensive issues like having to replace the trim tabs or multiple gauges. There are other things I've noticed in the pictures like the drivers seat cushions need replacing and there aren't any pictures of the cabin area. The cushions aren't a huge concern to me either but I'm mostly worried about the seller seeming to hide things on the boat, like the motor potentially having issues. Some things I love about the boat are that it's a newer style 228 with the hard top, it doesn't have bottom paint, the hull looks to be in very good condition from the pictures, it has a newer 4 stroke motor that if it checks out could provide many many years of usage, it has the bow pulpit, all of the cushions and seems to have been taken care of rather well. The boat also has the bracket for a fishfinder/GPS as well as transducer and believe the dealer said that it comes with a Lowrance FF/GPS unit, although this hasn't been verified. Another issue, as discussed in another thread is that the boat doesn't come with a trailer, so I'd have to purchase one and think I'd buy a brand new one so as not to have any issues buying a used trailer. I think the price is fair for being as advertised, but that would be my greatest concern of paying essentially the full asking price or top dollar for something that cold potentially need considerable work just to get it up and running consistently ok. What are your opinions on the matter? I'm rather torn on this one because I've seen similar boats in worse condition and with less options sell for much more but then I've also seen better boats with more options sell for less. What do you think? Thanks again!
On top of the possible issues with the motor... the boat doesn't come with the canvas, which isn't a huge issue to me because I don't think I'd ever us it much anyway, and didn't on my last boat. But there are several things on the boat that don't work such as the trim tabs, trim tab gauge, fuel, water pressure, stereo and VHF were all showing as "INOP" on the report they sent me. I'm guessing the "INOP" means inoperable and that the fuel means the fuel gauge and water pressure means the water pressure gauge. Again, these could be easy and cheap fixes like replacing the fuses on these items but they could also lead to more expensive issues like having to replace the trim tabs or multiple gauges. There are other things I've noticed in the pictures like the drivers seat cushions need replacing and there aren't any pictures of the cabin area. The cushions aren't a huge concern to me either but I'm mostly worried about the seller seeming to hide things on the boat, like the motor potentially having issues. Some things I love about the boat are that it's a newer style 228 with the hard top, it doesn't have bottom paint, the hull looks to be in very good condition from the pictures, it has a newer 4 stroke motor that if it checks out could provide many many years of usage, it has the bow pulpit, all of the cushions and seems to have been taken care of rather well. The boat also has the bracket for a fishfinder/GPS as well as transducer and believe the dealer said that it comes with a Lowrance FF/GPS unit, although this hasn't been verified. Another issue, as discussed in another thread is that the boat doesn't come with a trailer, so I'd have to purchase one and think I'd buy a brand new one so as not to have any issues buying a used trailer. I think the price is fair for being as advertised, but that would be my greatest concern of paying essentially the full asking price or top dollar for something that cold potentially need considerable work just to get it up and running consistently ok. What are your opinions on the matter? I'm rather torn on this one because I've seen similar boats in worse condition and with less options sell for much more but then I've also seen better boats with more options sell for less. What do you think? Thanks again!
1999 Grady White - Walkaround - 228 SEAFARER | Ingman Marine
www.ingmanmarine.com